Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food waste disposal. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for grinding food waste, dewatering and drying the ground food waste, and then discharging the dried food waste. More particularly, the present invention relates to a food waste disposal having a dewatering tub for dewatering and drying food waste. The dewatering tub can be tilted in a top/bottom direction. While the dewatering tub inclines downward at a prescribed angle (i.e., the dewatering tub is tilted), the food waste can be discharged.
Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, since food waste remaining after consumed in a home or restaurant contains a considerable amount of water, if the food waste is not processed immediately, a drainer of a sink and a drainage hole connected to the drainer can be clogged. Specifically, if such food waste is introduced into a sewage way, it may cause water pollution.
If water is not removed from the food waste, the weight of the food waste increases. Moreover, if the water contained food waste spoils, a considerable amount of leachate is generated together with bad smell. Hence, environmental pollution may be triggered.
In order to solve the above problems, various food waste disposals for removing water from food waste and drying the dewatered food waste have been proposed.
For instance, Korean Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. 2010-0044395 discloses a food waste disposal for grinding, dewatering and discharging food waste with a single motor.
However, since the food waste disposal disclosed in Korean Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. 2010-0044395 has a space for dewatering separated from a space for drying, it may cause a problem that the food waste disposal is structurally complicated and spatially limited.
For another instance, Korean Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. 2010-0044396 discloses a food waste disposal having a lower drum configured to operate up and down by a cam and an upper drum configured to be driven by friction with the lower drum.
However, the food waste disposal disclosed in Korean Publication of Unexamined Patent Application No. 2010-0044396 has the following problems. First of all, it is impossible to dry food waste within a drum (i.e., a separate drying space is required). Secondly, since viscous food waste is attached to an inner wall of the drum, it is not smoothly discharged.